


Small Talk

by Lightspeed



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Conversations, Diners, Friendship, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-30
Updated: 2013-07-30
Packaged: 2017-12-21 20:02:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/904319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightspeed/pseuds/Lightspeed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miss Pauling enjoys the day off at the local diner with a friend, and meets a new one, and has to attempt to explain her line of work without actually explaining it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Talk

"I don't know, it all seems so dumb in retrospect, you know?"

The diner was busy enough for a Thursday evening, warm savory air circulating in spite of the hard-working air conditioners in place. A frying machine beeped quietly in the kitchen, its shrill alarm carrying out into the seating area, hurrying not a one of the establishment's employees. Seated at a corner table, Miss Pauling sat, her jeans and t-shirt a comfortable change from the dresses she found herself wearing to work so often. Her days off were so irregular, she found herself exulting in the ability to wear sandals out of the house, stretching her legs under the table. Across from her sat another woman, taller than herself, with auburn hair worn long and untied. Her clothes were bright, her smile more so. She picked a pickle up off of her plate and took a bite, pointing at her friend with the remnant. "Yeah, well, it's not my fault. I didn't know he'd never even kissed a girl before. Still can't believe he panicked like that."

"You should've realized when he had no idea how to respond to your flirting, Jen," Pauling chided, trying to remove a single cheese fry from her plate without taking all of the others with it. It was no small task, particularly with the brown gravy slathered all over the whole mess.

"Yeah, well, shows to go me, right?" Looking off in the distance, Jen's eyes lit up, and she waved. Turning to see who she was looking at, Pauling caught sight of a red-haired woman in a short green dress walking in the door. Long orange ringlets were tied back into a loose ponytail, a few strands falling in front of her pale, freckled face. She smiled and waved back to Jen, and quickly made her way over.

"Jen! Fancy seeing you here! How you been?" the woman asked, her voice low and throaty, a strange contrast to her excited demeanor.

"Good, good. Out with my favourite hermit here. Pauling, this is Maddie. Maddie, Pauling," Jen introduced with a grin.

"I'm not a hermit, I just work a lot," Pauling assured, shaking Maddie's hand.

"Pauling? That's an unusual name."

"It's my last name."  
  
"Yeah," Jen interrupted, "everyone calls Pauling by her last name. Just a thing we've always done. Kinda like Cooper over at the bar."

"I follow," Maddie assured, snagging a seat and plopping down. "So what do you do, if you don't mind me asking?"

Pauling cleared her throat and took a sip of her drink. "Ah, I little of this, a little of that. I work for TF Industries."

"The big corporation that owns Mann Co. and sells all of that crazy stuff?"

"Yeah."

"She sells herself short," Jen began. "She makes it sound like she's a go-fer, but she's pretty high up. Assistant to somebody important in the company, and liaison to the gravel wars. It's all very classified."

"Liaison to the gravel wars? So you've met those crazy guys who fight in the badlands?" Maddie asked, immediately interested. Pauling wondered how much more excited the red-head could get before she hit critical mass.

"Met nothing, she works with them!" Jen crowed, earning a glare from her small friend.

"Sort of work with them. I'm not on the field or anything, but they purchase products from us our subsidiary Mann Co. So I do a lot of paperwork and make sure their orders go through and stuff like that. It's all really boring."

"I don't see how anything involving those wars can be boring! Do you go on site a lot?"

"Every couple of weeks, sometimes more if they need me."

"Wow," Maddie mused. "All of those handsome men. And you're probably the only woman they see for weeks on end."

Pauling nearly choked on her soda, snorting to keep it out of her sinuses. "Oh jeez, nothing like that! Are you kidding me? Those lunatics? I'd sooner start hitting on Jen!"  
  
"Like when you're drunk?"

"THAT WAS ONE TIME!"

Jen laughed victoriously. "Apparently they're all bonkers, though. Too bad. That skinny one with the headset is a cutie."

"That skinny one with the headset never shuts up ever. There's a reason nobody else wears headsets anymore."

Maddie quirked her head. "So is there anything interesting about them, at least?"  
  
"It depends on your definition of interesting. They're interesting alright. I can't say much because a lot is classified, but they're all really cordial to me, except said skinny loud-mouth. Most of them are professionals, at least. Some of them are crazier than others, but a lot of them are subtle about being psychopaths. They kill people for money, you know."

"Plus, aren't the big guy and the doctor queers?" Jen asked.

"Classified."

"That means yes."

Pauling sighed, the ice in her drink clacking against the cup as she stirred it with her straw. "Look, this is my only day off. Can we talk about something other than my crazy job and who may or may not be screwing in the barracks? Maddie, what do you do?"  
  
"Me? Oh, I work down at the gun shop on the corner of Third and Newell."

"You work at a gun shop?"

"You work with mercenaries."

"Aha, good point," Pauling smiled. "So do you shoot?"

"A little. I usually hit the range on weekends. I own a few revolvers, mostly large caliber. I like the feel of a big gun in my hands. Makes me feel powerful, you know? And knowing how to use it, and use it well, it just makes me feel capable."

Jen chuckled, "Careful, Maddie. Keep talking like that and she'll try to take you home."

"THAT WAS ONE TIME!" Pauling groused, glaring at her friend.


End file.
